Modi Inspired Students With Mann Ki Baat. Can't He Reassure NEET-NET Aspirants?

Moving higher up the power structures that be, there is the country's prime minister with whom the buck must stop.

Aspirants search their roll numbers for seats before entering an examination centre to appear in the UGC-NET exam, at AN college in Patna. The UGC-NET June 2024 exam has been cancelled due to concerns about exam integrity. A fresh exam will be scheduled, and the CBI will probe the matter, the Ministry of Education stated.

(Photo: PTI)

The NEET-NET 'scam', as it gathers more traction, is turning out to be quite a potboiler — and this was expected. For, every issue in the country that adversely affects common people at large, and is duly exposed, eventually becomes a political slugfest. In the quagmire of political blame games, finger-pointing and sweeping generalisations, the concerns of the affected people are lost and they are left high and dry to the vagaries of what can be called ‘moral luck’.

For the examination, it does not matter whether you worked hard, very hard, or did not — it is all about your being at the ‘right’ place at the ‘right’ time and that is ‘moral luck’. If you were morally lucky, you are in, if not, you are out. And how ironic is this, to say the least, especially with respect to higher education that is going to produce doctors, engineers, teachers, researchers, skilled workers, i.e., the nation builders.

But, who and why must one speak up and intervene in the face of such scams playing havoc with the lives of young aspirants? And, what may be the reasons to maintain silence, if one chooses to do that?

If one adopts the ‘bottom-up’ approach to this question, then, in the power structures, it is the public that must speak up first. Fortunately, there is a section of society that empathises with those affected, which raises a voice or a fisted hand in protest and tries to make a difference. They speak up for justice and their voices make a difference that is palpably visible; in this case, with heads starting to roll and high-level committees set up to investigate the scam.

But, there are also those who are silent spectators — waiting and watching on the sidelines, either because such scams do not affect them directly or because there is so much ‘political entertainment’ happening that they do not know what to attend to seriously. So much so that some amongst them have turned hardcore sceptics who are convinced that nothing is going to ever change. They do express concern within WhatsApp groups, and indulge in some fact-finding exercises, but soon give up because they are convinced that their sole voice is not going to be heard. Nothing is going to move this lot and their silence is beyond the pale.

Thankfully, the public outcry against the NEET-NET fiasco forced the next up in the power structure to speak up, i.e., the Minister of Education. First, a denial of any paper leak, an undermining of the whole incident, a justification for grace marks and then a complete turnaround — an admittance of lapses when facing the ire of the public and the sharp rap of the highest court of the country.

It beats common sense why more time could not have been given for the logistical lapse instead of grace marks. That would, at least, have maintained a level playing field! In this respect, the NTA’s omission and commission both decided the moral luck of the aspirants. Some got lucky, others were short-changed.

Moving higher up the power structures that be, there is the prime minister of the country with whom the buck must stop. But, typically as in the past, we have not heard from the honourable Prime Minister yet.

In the past, the prime minister has encouraged and inspired many examinees with his Mann Ki Baat sessions before the school board exams. Though this is unusual, it is nevertheless appreciable. But why has he become maun (Hindi word for ‘quiet’) on the NEET-NET scam? Not a word for the disheartened, almost disillusioned aspirants. And, ironically, he had referred to his predecessor in an unbecoming manner using the very same word maun.

It is interesting to understand why a leader chooses to adopt the stance of stark silence. Every person has a right to speak and a right to remain silent. In a personal capacity, this must be granted to the prime minister of a country too. But ‘rights’, as we all know, come with ‘duties’ and duties are defined in terms of the role voluntarily chosen by the individual.

An elected Prime Minister represents the political will of the nation. The role of the Prime Minister is to lead from the front. In this role, it is his/her duty (raj dharma) to act or speak to reassure the people of the nation in times of crisis and distress. There is no running away from that.

However, when the prime minister chooses not to speak on the NEET-NET scam, then one can only speculate that, perhaps, there are other more important matters that require immediate attention or, that this matter is trivial and can be handled by others or later, or that speaking up will compromise other larger interests of his own self or the ruling party.

On International Yoga Day, the nation saw the Prime Minister leading a massive Yoga session while students across the country were out protesting. Undeniably, the Prime Minister was responsible for getting the United Nations to declare the 21st of June as International Yoga Day, thereby putting India on the world map with this declaration. Definitely, a matter of pride for our nation and the day must be celebrated.

So, celebrating this day in style (including selfies of the event in Kashmir) was not surprising. But a word of assurance for the distraught students was surely expected and becoming of one who should lead from the front. Nothing has come yet and we are waiting, honourable prime minister.

But as the adage goes — only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. In the case concerned, this lot is a sizeable number. The youth, from every section of society, cutting across caste, class and gender, is an important ‘vote bank’, and even if nothing but votes matter to the politicians, they better take cognizance, speak up, and take due responsibility.

The famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had said, albeit, in a different context — whereof one cannot speak, one must remain silent. In a political crisis context, it seems, what is true is just the opposite — ‘whereof one cannot remain silent, one must speak up.’

[Dr. (Ms.) Shashi Motilal (Retd.) Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi, India, obtained her PhD from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, USA in 1986. She has been Visiting Faculty at the University of Akron, Ohio,  USA and Carleton University, ON, Canada, TERI University, New Delhi and IIT/Delhi and IISP, New Delhi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.]